I recently traveled on Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) between the United States and Sweden, flying premium economy from Chicago to Stockholm on the way to Sweden and business class from Copenhagen to Chicago on the way back. It was a good journey.
It will not come as a Stop the Presses moment for frequent fliers to read that business class is better than premium economy class on the same airline. That said, SAS's Economy Extra is a superior example of an increasingly popular type of service perched midway between biz and coach class. This past week, SAS won the annual award for best long-haul premium economy in a poll of frequent fliers for the U.S. monthly magazine Global Traveler (www.globaltravelerusa.com). It's not hard to see why. Unlike offerings by airlines that serve up premium economy with heavier doses of economy than premium-quality product, SAS features service that borrows more from Biz.
As the airline notes, "Economy Extra passengers on SAS's long-haul routes are seated in a separate cabin in seats that are one inch wider and offer six inches more legroom than in Economy. Other features include laptop computer power outlets at every seat, greater choice of meals and drinks and personal video screen with audio and video on demand. Economy Extra customers may use the Business check-in, have an increased baggage allowance, and access to Fast Track security, where available, and earn more EuroBonus points.''
Speaking of business class: It's good. I flew SAS biz class once before, in May 2007. It was fine then, but seems to have been upgraded, with better in-flight entertainment choices and enhanced food and drink menus. Surveys of frequent fliers show that most people care most about their seat and about on-time arrivals and departures. I care about those things, too. But on flights that can last 10 hours or so, I also care about amenities that some travelers consider frills: Namely, food and drink and ways to make the hours fly by when you're not sleeping or working: music, movies, games, TV.
As a corporation, SAS is a rather ungainly bird. The airline - which flew 25.3 million passengers in 2010 and was rated the 10th-best airline in the world by Skytrax (www.airlinequality.com) that year - is jointly owned by the governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark with 50 percent of shares plus one more share. The rest is privately owned. None of this matters in the sky, where service from a smoothly multilingual staff nicely strikes a tricky balance between attentive and unobtrusive, polite but not fawning.
About those food and drink offerings: SAS stocks the caraway-flavored Scandinavian liquor aquavit (Aalborg Jubilaeums), savory meat (lamb on my flight), fish and vegetarian entrees and open-face sandwiches. The wine list was short but well-chosen: One of the two whites was the French product Alain Grignon Viognier 2010; one of the two reds was a good pick from Chile: Falernia Reserve Carmenere 2009.
One more thing: SAS was cited as Europe's most punctual airline in 2010 by the respected research outfit FlightStats, which tracks such things.
In sort: Good airline, good ride.
For more information: www.flysas.com/us.
Showing posts with label SAS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SAS. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
To Scandinavia and Finland
I'll shortly be going back to Sweden for the first time in four and a half years, and onward to Finland, for the first time ever. It's a travel-writing trip and I am looking forward to it.
I'll be taking Scandinavian Airlines to Sweden and back to the US of A - my second time flying with Star Alliance-member SAS. It'll be my first time on oneworld alliance member Finnair. I'll be winging it to Helsinki with them.
Needless to say - although it appears that I'm saying it anyway - there will be travel articles and blog posts in this space as the trip unfolds, and for a while afterward.
How do you say "See you later'' in Swedish? Not sure. Maybe I'll find out.
I'll be taking Scandinavian Airlines to Sweden and back to the US of A - my second time flying with Star Alliance-member SAS. It'll be my first time on oneworld alliance member Finnair. I'll be winging it to Helsinki with them.
Needless to say - although it appears that I'm saying it anyway - there will be travel articles and blog posts in this space as the trip unfolds, and for a while afterward.
How do you say "See you later'' in Swedish? Not sure. Maybe I'll find out.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The 2011 SAS Crew Guide
One of the gifts of the season just arrived, earmarking some great places to go in the New Year:
It is the 2011 Crew Guide, the seventh edition of a handy paperback guidebook to some of the planet's most interesting places. Uniquely, the book is written by well-traveled members of airline flight crews such as flight attendants, pilots and pursers. Originally the writers were all with Scandinavian Airlines but SAS contributors are now supplemented by writers from nine other carriers such as SAS Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and United Airlines.
The Crew Guide breaks down tips and advice into self-explanatory categories: Eat, Buy, Sleep, See, Recover. New this year are mini-profiles of photogenic crew members, matched to cities they know well. The Crew Guide is necessarily more suggestive than definitive, as the 22 cities included in its pages have to be served by at least one of the 10 participating airlines. Bangkok, Stockholm, Oslo, Brussels and the like are included - and all are worthy choices -but other worthies such as Cape Town and Buenos Aires aren't in the 351-page book.
I was just in Beijing and Tokyo, so I gravitated first to entries about those cities. The 20-page section on Beijing is good, with outstanding restaurants such as The Courtyard and 1949 Hidden City's Noodle Bar making the cut, along with some lively markets. Tokyo, as dynamic and fascinating a metropolis as any on the planet, gets just 10 pages, though an informed contributor correctly points out that some of the best dining in town takes place under the arches of the Japanese capital's railroad bridges.
The 2011 edition of the Crew Guide continues the series' infatuation with New York City - which, at 42 pages, gets just two pages fewer than Beijing, Tokyo and London combined. Mind you, I like the Big Apple, but unlike Tokyo and Beijing, it is a city whose future is behind it, and the greatest-city-in-the-world routine is debatable.
That said, this is a engaging and helpful book, well worth the 15 euros (about $20 USD) being charged for it. Wherever you roam, advice such as this from SAS crew member Dandi Si, in Beijing, will stand you in good stead when you're trying not to look like a - perish the thought! - tourist:
"Rucksacks, walking boots, and professional outdoor equipment are signs of a newcomer,'' Si says. "As too are cameras around the neck.''
You have been warned.
No, the FAs on your next flight won't be selling the book, but you can buy a copy online at http://www.sasguides.com/).
It is the 2011 Crew Guide, the seventh edition of a handy paperback guidebook to some of the planet's most interesting places. Uniquely, the book is written by well-traveled members of airline flight crews such as flight attendants, pilots and pursers. Originally the writers were all with Scandinavian Airlines but SAS contributors are now supplemented by writers from nine other carriers such as SAS Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and United Airlines.
The Crew Guide breaks down tips and advice into self-explanatory categories: Eat, Buy, Sleep, See, Recover. New this year are mini-profiles of photogenic crew members, matched to cities they know well. The Crew Guide is necessarily more suggestive than definitive, as the 22 cities included in its pages have to be served by at least one of the 10 participating airlines. Bangkok, Stockholm, Oslo, Brussels and the like are included - and all are worthy choices -but other worthies such as Cape Town and Buenos Aires aren't in the 351-page book.
I was just in Beijing and Tokyo, so I gravitated first to entries about those cities. The 20-page section on Beijing is good, with outstanding restaurants such as The Courtyard and 1949 Hidden City's Noodle Bar making the cut, along with some lively markets. Tokyo, as dynamic and fascinating a metropolis as any on the planet, gets just 10 pages, though an informed contributor correctly points out that some of the best dining in town takes place under the arches of the Japanese capital's railroad bridges.
The 2011 edition of the Crew Guide continues the series' infatuation with New York City - which, at 42 pages, gets just two pages fewer than Beijing, Tokyo and London combined. Mind you, I like the Big Apple, but unlike Tokyo and Beijing, it is a city whose future is behind it, and the greatest-city-in-the-world routine is debatable.
That said, this is a engaging and helpful book, well worth the 15 euros (about $20 USD) being charged for it. Wherever you roam, advice such as this from SAS crew member Dandi Si, in Beijing, will stand you in good stead when you're trying not to look like a - perish the thought! - tourist:
"Rucksacks, walking boots, and professional outdoor equipment are signs of a newcomer,'' Si says. "As too are cameras around the neck.''
You have been warned.
No, the FAs on your next flight won't be selling the book, but you can buy a copy online at http://www.sasguides.com/).
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friends in High Places: SAS Crew Guides
It figures that people who fly a lot would tend to know about great places to eat and drink, things to do, places to hang out, yes? Sure. Proof of this is in the useful annual Crew Guide paperbacks published by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), with a little help from their friends at other Star Alliance carriers, among them bmi, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian, TAP and LOT.
SAS has quizzed thousands of flight crew members and pilots since 2004 for inside information, which is then boiled down and recounted verbatim from contributors, who are identified by job title, first name and the initial letter of their family name. The series is subtitled "The best-kept secrets of cabin crews and pilots.'' I am using the 2009 edition. The 2010 edition is coming out at the end of November, according to SAS public relations guy in the United States, Tom Fredo. The book retails for 15 euros (currently about $22 U.S.) and is available online from http://www.sasguides.com/.
I used the book for the first time when I arrived yesterday in Barcelona. It's working for me. I booked into a hotel in the marina district, at the water's edge of the Mediterrranean, so I followed tips from the SAS Crew Guide for this part of town. I checked out Shoko, at 36 Paseo Maritimo de la Barceloneta, and found it just as described in the book, a "sexy restaurant and bar at the beach and the Olympic Village.'' Then, I drifted over to another spot nearby, Aqua, at no. 30 down the beach. The book recommended the outdoor terrace; it was sunny and warm when I dropped by, so I took advantage, watching people stroll by on the boardwalk. Tomas W., a pilot for SAS, raved about Aqua's ''great Mediterranean food.'' That was dead-on, too.
So far, the Crew Guide is two-for-two. I'll be thumbing through it some more, looking for local knowledge, throughout the rest of my trip. If I find something great, I'll hip you to it, too.
SAS has quizzed thousands of flight crew members and pilots since 2004 for inside information, which is then boiled down and recounted verbatim from contributors, who are identified by job title, first name and the initial letter of their family name. The series is subtitled "The best-kept secrets of cabin crews and pilots.'' I am using the 2009 edition. The 2010 edition is coming out at the end of November, according to SAS public relations guy in the United States, Tom Fredo. The book retails for 15 euros (currently about $22 U.S.) and is available online from http://www.sasguides.com/.
I used the book for the first time when I arrived yesterday in Barcelona. It's working for me. I booked into a hotel in the marina district, at the water's edge of the Mediterrranean, so I followed tips from the SAS Crew Guide for this part of town. I checked out Shoko, at 36 Paseo Maritimo de la Barceloneta, and found it just as described in the book, a "sexy restaurant and bar at the beach and the Olympic Village.'' Then, I drifted over to another spot nearby, Aqua, at no. 30 down the beach. The book recommended the outdoor terrace; it was sunny and warm when I dropped by, so I took advantage, watching people stroll by on the boardwalk. Tomas W., a pilot for SAS, raved about Aqua's ''great Mediterranean food.'' That was dead-on, too.
So far, the Crew Guide is two-for-two. I'll be thumbing through it some more, looking for local knowledge, throughout the rest of my trip. If I find something great, I'll hip you to it, too.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Tony Tyler's View from 37000 Feet
Writing travel stories and covering aviation gives me many chances to meet travel-biz executives, some of whom are high-flying visionaries and some of whom have trouble getting their ketchup to find their fries.
Tony Tyler, the CEO of Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways, is one of the good ones. I've interviewed him twice, once in San Francisco and once in his office-with-a-view in Cathay Pacific City, the airline's gleaming headquarters at Hong Kong International Airport. Both times he had interesting and insightful things to say, not just about his airline but about airlines and travel.
I flew last month around East Asia on Cathay and its affiliated carrier Dragonair. I didn't meet up with Tyler, but I did come across a speech he made to the annual Asian Aerospace conference, held this year in Hong Kong. If the agenda he sketched in that speech is followed in the real world, it will change the way we fly by reducing pollution from the world's jetliners and helping to harmonize the crazy-quilt of national and regional regulations by replacing them with a global set of standards. Guilt-free flying? Could happen.
Like everyone in travel, Tyler has a dismal take on the economy. "Hand on heart, I can say this is one of the most challenging times we have ever faced - and I know we are not alone ... I have been in the business for 30 years and seen many highs and lows, but the past year and a half is as bad as it's ever been.''
More to the point, what can be done about it? What has Cathay done about it?
The airline - founded in Hong Kong by two World War II vets in 1946 and now one of the major players in Asia - has reduced its number of flights and done everything it can to hedge fuel prices. Most airlines have done that. What most airlines have not done is keep their staff intact during the downturn. Cathay has done that, cutting salaries and inducing staffers to take unpaid leave, but avoiding morale-busting staff layoffs.
Happily, Cathay has - so far, at least - also avoided cutting back on the premium customer service that make it one of the planet's Tiffany carriers. Tyler pledges to keep it that way, even if the Great Recession changes the way people travel for years to come, as it may.
"One thing I do know is that Cathay Pacific will remain a premium carrier,'' he said. "High-yield business travel might not come back in the same way as before, but there will still be a place for airlines that differentiate in terms of the level of service they provide ... This is especially true in Asia, where people still expect some pampering and special attention on flights that, on average, are longer than those in Europe or in the U.S.''
More broadly, Tyler - this year's chairman of the International Air Transport Association, the global trade group for airlines - is promoting a badly needed 'green' agenda. In December 2007, Cathay followed the lead of British Airways, SAS and several North American carriers by introducing a voluntary carbon-offset program for passengers.
Now, Tyler and the airline industry is looking at what may come out of the climate-change summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen - and trying to modify or pre-empt regulation of airplane emissions. As Tyler correctly noted in his Hong Kong speech, IATA has adopted the ambitious goal of getting its 200-plus members to be carbon-neutral on their flights
"Airlines are the first global industry to make such a commitment, and this will require ongoing investment in fleet renewal, new airframes and engines, infrastructure, operations, biofuels and offset mechanisms such as emissions trading,'' Tyler says.
Of course, getting aviation operations that match high-flying rhetoric is complicated and time-consuming. The world's airlines are not there yet. And the British-born Tyler, like all corporate executives, has a duty to make a profit for shareholders that can be at odds with blue-sky goals. But, Tyler's lofty view from 37,000 feet comes closer to matching the realities on the ground than those of many of his compatriots. Aviation, and travel generally, need more like him.
Tony Tyler, the CEO of Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways, is one of the good ones. I've interviewed him twice, once in San Francisco and once in his office-with-a-view in Cathay Pacific City, the airline's gleaming headquarters at Hong Kong International Airport. Both times he had interesting and insightful things to say, not just about his airline but about airlines and travel.
I flew last month around East Asia on Cathay and its affiliated carrier Dragonair. I didn't meet up with Tyler, but I did come across a speech he made to the annual Asian Aerospace conference, held this year in Hong Kong. If the agenda he sketched in that speech is followed in the real world, it will change the way we fly by reducing pollution from the world's jetliners and helping to harmonize the crazy-quilt of national and regional regulations by replacing them with a global set of standards. Guilt-free flying? Could happen.
Like everyone in travel, Tyler has a dismal take on the economy. "Hand on heart, I can say this is one of the most challenging times we have ever faced - and I know we are not alone ... I have been in the business for 30 years and seen many highs and lows, but the past year and a half is as bad as it's ever been.''
More to the point, what can be done about it? What has Cathay done about it?
The airline - founded in Hong Kong by two World War II vets in 1946 and now one of the major players in Asia - has reduced its number of flights and done everything it can to hedge fuel prices. Most airlines have done that. What most airlines have not done is keep their staff intact during the downturn. Cathay has done that, cutting salaries and inducing staffers to take unpaid leave, but avoiding morale-busting staff layoffs.
Happily, Cathay has - so far, at least - also avoided cutting back on the premium customer service that make it one of the planet's Tiffany carriers. Tyler pledges to keep it that way, even if the Great Recession changes the way people travel for years to come, as it may.
"One thing I do know is that Cathay Pacific will remain a premium carrier,'' he said. "High-yield business travel might not come back in the same way as before, but there will still be a place for airlines that differentiate in terms of the level of service they provide ... This is especially true in Asia, where people still expect some pampering and special attention on flights that, on average, are longer than those in Europe or in the U.S.''
More broadly, Tyler - this year's chairman of the International Air Transport Association, the global trade group for airlines - is promoting a badly needed 'green' agenda. In December 2007, Cathay followed the lead of British Airways, SAS and several North American carriers by introducing a voluntary carbon-offset program for passengers.
Now, Tyler and the airline industry is looking at what may come out of the climate-change summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen - and trying to modify or pre-empt regulation of airplane emissions. As Tyler correctly noted in his Hong Kong speech, IATA has adopted the ambitious goal of getting its 200-plus members to be carbon-neutral on their flights
"Airlines are the first global industry to make such a commitment, and this will require ongoing investment in fleet renewal, new airframes and engines, infrastructure, operations, biofuels and offset mechanisms such as emissions trading,'' Tyler says.
Of course, getting aviation operations that match high-flying rhetoric is complicated and time-consuming. The world's airlines are not there yet. And the British-born Tyler, like all corporate executives, has a duty to make a profit for shareholders that can be at odds with blue-sky goals. But, Tyler's lofty view from 37,000 feet comes closer to matching the realities on the ground than those of many of his compatriots. Aviation, and travel generally, need more like him.
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